Section: METRO
BEARDEN'S ATTORNEY FIGHTS TO GET AMOUNT LOWERED TO AROUND $500,000
Of The Post-Dispatch
Bearden's attorney is fighting to get the amount lowered. But he did not dispute more than $500,000 of the amount Bearden owes.
The attorney, Scott Rosenblum, said Bearden will get out of prison before Christmas. He is serving a two-year sentence.
Bearden wants to pay his debts, but r"at this point, he's basically destitute," Rosenblum said.
Bearden's last big asset - about $250,000 in rare Brazilian wood used to make bows for string instruments - was seized by a lawyer in a civil suit, Rosenblum said.
Most of the dozens of rare instruments Bearden stole from friends and customers remain in Japan, where Bearden sold them. They cannot be recovered, U.S. officials say.
Court records show that Bearden fleeced at least eight past and present musicians with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, as well as the former president of the Symphony - the late Stanley J. Goodman, chairman of the the May Department Stores Co.
Until now, names of victims had been identified in court records only by initials.
Goodman was an accomplished violinist. He and Bearden became friends when Bearden dealt in rare instruments at a shop next to Powell Hall, home of the Symphony. Bearden later moved his shop to Shrewsbury.
After Goodman died in 1992, Bearden promised to sell six violin bows for the executive's estate. Instead, Bearden took the bows to Japan, court records show. He did not return until he was arrested last year and extradited.
Prosecutors want to recover $59,000 for the Goodman estate.
Rosenblum said Bearden should not have to pay. He argues that the claim was filed after Bearden was indicted and was not one of the 14 felonies he pleaded guilty to in September.
The Symphony members Bearden bilked include:
Helen S. Tung, cellist; Marilyn Beabout, a retired cellist; Masayosi Kataoka, cellist; Cara Mia Antonello, retired principal second violinist; William Martin, violinist; Ron Vince, substitute violinist and a violin teacher at Washington and Webster universities; Dana Meyers, violinist; and Nina Bodnar, violinist and former Symphony concertmaster.
Bearden stole a $10,000 bow he had promised to sell for Bodnar. Rosenblum is fighting that claim too, saying that Bodnar filed it too late.
Rosenblum also contended that some of Bearden's victims are taking advantage of their insurance companies by inflating the amount of their losses.
One of those he singled out was the St. Louis Symphony.
Rosenblum pointed to a $200,000 insurance settlement in the case of Meyers. Rosenblum said Bearden gave Meyers $8,000 of what he owed, and he contended that Meyers should have filed an insurance claim for just $192,000.
Now the insurance company wants to collect the full $200,000 from Bearden. "He shouldn't have to pay twice," Rosenblum said.
Lawrence P. Katzenstein, a tax lawyer and a member of the Symphony board, testified that Rosenblum was wrong.
Katzenstein said he viewed the $8,000 as "part compensation" for the $1,300 a month loan that Meyers paid for a violin to replace the one Bearden stole.
Because Meyers played her violin in the Symphony, she filed her insurance claim with the Symphony's insurance company. Bruce Coppock, then executive director of the Symphony, was aware that Meyers filed a claim for the entire $200,000 as was the insurance company, Katzenstein said.
FBI Agent Jeff Jensen testified that many of Bearden's victims were afraid to come forward, fearing publicity.
One victim, Marilyn Beabout, gave Bearden $80,000 for a violin she expected him to sell for her at a profit. Instead, Bearden took the instrument to Japan, sold it and kept the money.
A friend of Bearden - an American violin dealer in Tokyo identified as Louis Caparelli - called Beabout, said he knew who had her violin and offered to get it back for $50,000, Jensen said.
Beabout paid the money and got her violin, but apparently had been ashamed to tell him, Jensen testified.
"I told her, before she writes any more large checks for instruments, she ought to give me a call," the FBI agent said.
Philip J. Kass of Philadelphia, president of the Violin Society of America, testified for the government. He said most of the victims' claims seem reasonable.
Rosenblum contended that some claims are inflated because they were partly based on estimates by Bearden - who Rosenblum said had inflated the amounts he promised victims he could get for their instruments.
U.S. District Judge Carol E. Jackson said she was doubtful: "I don't have any evidence of that."
She will decide later how much Bearden must repay.
A recent federal law makes restitution mandatory for crimes committed since April 1996.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Wilkerson said the law requires Bearden to repay $763,300 he stole since the law went into effect. The remaining $ 986,300 was stolen before April 1996 and is not mandatory, he said.
Before Bearden began dealing in rare instruments, he was a world-class bow maker. After prison, he plans to resume that craft.
If he sells a bow per week for $3,000, he could earn enough to repay the entire $1.7 million in just under 11 years..
Rosenblum has asked that Bearden spend the rest of his sentence at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., a prison camp with tennis courts, a weight room and no bars. Court records show that the judge has agreed to recommend that the Bureau of Prisons send Bearden to Eglin.
New victims still are turning up as they learn of Bearden's conviction. Wilkerson says he can't estimate how man(y) people Bearden fleeced or the total amount he stole.